Ben Schwartz to Voice Sonic In Sonic The Hedgehog Movie

The moment has finally arrived – Sonic the Hedgehog has officially been cast for his new movie.

Variety reported that Ben Schwartz will take on the voice role of SEGA’s popular blue speedster for his Hollywood outing, which is due for release in 2019.

The 36-year-old American actor has appeared in Parks and Recreation and such films as The Other Guys and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (as BB-8, alongside Bill Hader). The actor expressed excitement on Twitter:

The plot will revolve around townspeople joining forces with a local sheriff to save Sonic from the government that is pursuing him.

The film is being directed by Jeff Fowler, who has previously written and animated short films as well as having been an animation researcher for 2009’s Where The Wild Things Are. He received an Oscar nomination for 2015’s animated short, ‘Gopher Broke’.

Joining Fowler will be producers Neal H. Morris and Deadpool’s Tim Miller along with Toby Aschner.

The project was previously in the works through Sony before Paramount picked it up last October.

The main shooting location of the town is Ladysmith on Vancouver Island, British Columbia in Canada. A number of local businesses have allowed the shooting crew to use their stores for the film including Bayview Framing for the police station and the Top Draw Consignment store for a doughnut shop.

Sonic has been a major character in the gaming scene since 1991 with his debut for the Sega Megadrive, Sonic the Hedgehog. Created as a rival for Nintendo’s Mario, the speedy blue hedgehog replaced Alex Kidd as SEGA’s official mascot – and has amassed sales over $114 million for the huge backlog of games since his inception.

The most recent Sonic game to be released was Sonic Mania Plus, which came out July this year. It’s an expanded version of the 2017 hit.

What do you think of the casting for the Sonic movie? Are you looking forward to seeing the blue blur in CGI live-action? Sound off in the comments below!